Coaches, scorekeepers and parents are encouraged to report youth sports events on this interactive blog. Selected reports will be used in print as the youth sports highlight of the day on the Plus section cover.

Youth sports report for March

The USA Olympic development program youth boys water polo teams — including players from the Sleepy Hollow program — pose at the regional championships in Orange County.

To file your results, add your report as a comment here. Look for information from the youth sports blog in the newspaper during the week. Check the daily youth sports highlight on the left side of Plus section cover.

St. Raphael 6A girls basketball team.

Make sure your report clearly indicates the event, the score, the teams involved and the sport. Include as many names as you like, but be sure to include at least one name for possible use in the print edition. Please include individual statistics to highlight what each athlete did well.

Email photographs to photos@marinij.com.

Novato Our Lady of Loretto Girls 5th Grade basketball team won the Marin County CYO Championship on March 16th.

The White Hill girls sixth-grade basketball team poses with their Marin Middle School championship trophies.

Abby Wines achieved a double championship, helping the St. Raphael’s girls sixth-grade basketball team win the Marin CYO championship, while also pushing the White Hill Middle School sixth-grade squad to the Marin middle school title. Do you know a student-athlete that did the double? Post it as a comment here.

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Wednesday night was “THE” night for the Fusion as they finished their season on a high note by beating the North Bay Christian Academy girls basketball team at Hill Gym 33-31. The match up was the final of a 3 game back to back to back for both teams. NBCA won the first and second games 40-37 and 27-25 (OT) respectively but the Fusion would not be denied in their third of the three game series.
The Fusion led by Naomi Michaelis and the field general Oliva Juan, dominated the boards and the flow of the game. With solid defense led by Jenna Wreden, Angie Starn, Maddie Wertz and Emma Clark, the Fusion were able to shut down the lane and force the NBCA outside for long range shooting. Julia Walker and Chloe Mahulcek controlled and defended the low post forcing turnovers and opportunities for the Fusion.
The Fusion’s victory was bittersweet as their center and defensive anchor Savannah “Savy” Brand was sidelined with the flu. When the team broke every huddle they ended with rowdy “1-2-3 Savy” in honor of their teammate. The dedication, trust and teamwork showed in the last 3 games as the Fusion gave Scott Morgan’s NBCA a true run for the money.

Down the stretch in the 4th quarter Clark came alive. After missing 3 games from a broken finger and foot injuries, she showed her guts and will by nailing 4-4 from the line as the team picked up fouls while in the Bonus. Halfway through the 4th quarter she also nailed a jumper that gave the Fusion a cushion to ultimately seal the deal.
“They played their hearts out for Savy, their parents, the league and themselves” said coach Eric Starn. “These are girls can run with anyone and they proved it tonight. They played with grit a mix of tempo that kept NBCA a little off balance. I didn’t think they thought we’d bring it like we did. Very proud of these young ladies!!”.

These girls showed a lot of heart and never gave up all season. This final game – with a win against the first place team – was a great culmination of a tough, gritty season. We owe a lot of thanks to their volunteer coach, Eric Starn, who was so positive all season long and seemed to have all the right words to say to get these girls to perform. Brava, Fusion!

Redwood Freshman Boys crush it at the Norcal High School Mountain Bike race at Granite Bay on March 8, 2014. Teddy Hayden, Zachary Gottesman, and Ben Cook from the Redwood High School Mountain Bike Team took the 2nd, 4th and 5th podium spots, respectively, at today’s race at Granite Bay (on Lake Folsom).

The Marin Rowing Association’s junior team (high school age rowers) was at the Battle of the Bay on Sunday, in racing hosted by the Oakland Strokes.

Both the men’s and the women’s premier boats (the Varsity 8’s) won their respective races, retaining both trophies for another year. The men’s V8 time was 5:37, ahead of second place Oakland Strokes by 6 seconds. The women’s time was 6:20, also ahead of second place Oakland Strokes by 6 seconds.

Local Players from Sleepy Hollow Aquatics Water Polo Club (SHAQ) Shine at USA Water Polo ODP Regionals in Orange County
This past weekend, 13 water polo players from Sleepy Hollow Aquatics club team participated in the USA Water Polo Olympic Development Team Regional Championships in Orange County, CA as part of three Northern California Pacific Zone team. Teams from all over California and Hawaii participated in the 2-day tournament at UC Irvine and surrounding pools. The 8th grade and under Pacific team finished second (out of 16) and the 10th and 12th grade teams finished third in their respective age group brackets. Participating in the tournament for the 8th grade Pacific Zone team were Daniel Roland, Spencer Hanson, Connor Moynihan, Wyatt Hanson, Quinn Woodhead, Emerson Sullivan, Henry Maas and Stefan Venne, for the 10th grade Pacific Zone team, Dylan Woodhead, Charlie May and Jackson Hettler and for the 12th grade Pacific Zone team, Brandon West and Jake Racich.

The Marin Waves Track Club’s Damon and Angelica Zuber won their Javelin events at the Big Valley Track Club Sectional Meet in Stockton, CA. on Saturday, March 15th. Damon Zuber won the Group 4 Boys (13-14) Javelin with a personal best throw of 111’10″. Angelica Zuber won the Girls Group 3 (11-12) Turbo Javelin with a throw of 101′.

Dixie Terra Linda LL Pirates Win Opener. Behind the pitching of Nicolas McNamara, the Pirates won a close fought contest over the Cardinals. McNamara was perfect through 3 and 2/3 innings and ended up striking out 13 Cards in 5 innings. Kyle Lord closed the game by pitching a perfect 6th inning. Chris de Langis was on base twice and Grady Newhall drove in 2 for the Pirates.

Marin Rowing Association’s Varsity 8+’s and JV8+’s won all their races. The men and women’s JV8+ crews posted the fasted JV times of the weekend, beating out-of-state crews. This is a strong showing in anticipation of these teams traveling down to the San Diego Crew Classic the first weekend in April.

St. Rafael 6A girls won the CYO championship against St. Anthoy’s today at Marin Catholic. The final score was 32-31. This victory capped an undefeated CYO season for St. Rafaels. Including pre-season games, they had an impressive 14-0 record. Today’s top 3 St. Rafael’s scorers were, MacKenzie Hallroan, Abby Wines, and Ashley Yanabu. The seven girls on St. Rafael played hard all season, congratulations to all team members including, Tiyona Ford-Pariani, Libby Davis, Sofia Benavidez, and Mei Gerlach. This is the second back to back Championship for coaches Jim Hallroan and Pete Davis. Go Bobcats!

Mellow Motors Cycling Team Jrs. Racer, 14 year old Zachary Gottesman, takes the win at the Bariani Road Race in Woodland, CA on 3/16/14 in the Jrs. 15-18 cat 4/5 category. Zach got into the lead pack and out sprinted the other three cat 4/5 racers for the win!

6th Grade B St. Isabella boys defeat higher seeded teams for the entire tournament to take the win in the championship game, beating St. Anthony in the final game with a score of 23-16. Going into tournament, the team was seeded 13 out of the 16 teams but Coaches Kirk Hunter and David Bailey knew they were not playing like the 13th seed. They finished their regular season with every team member making a basket during its last game. The boys were ready. The 6B St. Isabella boys were leading most of the championship game but it was a constant battle. Al Supradit Na Ayutthaya, a new player to the sport, was solid on defense and was the first to score during the game. With about one minute left, Jason Bissey is fouled twice in row sinking all four free throws, making the score 21-14 and essentially out of reach for St. Anthony. Joey Bailey scored two more free throws and Ethan Finestone, the high scorer of the day, scored 11 points total.

Dixie Terra Linda Pirates Win in the Bottom of the Sixth. The Pirates won a see-saw battle with the Rays when Gabe Blake singled home Josh Dedmon in the bottom of the last inning for a 5-4 Pirate victory. The Rays tied the score at 4 all in the top of the 6th and had the go ahead run tagged out at the plate for the their third out by catcher Karl Johnson. Danny Davis pitched 3 innings for the Pirates, striking out 5. Dedmon had 2 hits and scored 2 runs.

St. Isabella’s Boys 4th grade CYO A team wins Marin County Championship!

Amazing turnaround after an 0-7 preseason start. The St. Isabella boys went undefeated in league play(8-0) and won the championship against St. Patrick 33-23. Great team play from Dylan Ryssemus, Alex Helvig, Wyatt Schow, Declan Ochoa, Joseph Ferrara, Lucas Talbot, Brendan Cassidy, McGuire Lawson and Zachary Velyvis.

White Hill 6th grade girls won the Marin County Middle School Championship last night against Mill Valley. The final score was 29-28. With less than a minute to play, Abby Wines made the front half of her One and One to pull the Wildcats into the lead. The other top scorers for White Hill were Chenna Benavides with (3) 3 point shots for a total of 13 and Stephanie Coghlan with 8.
The entire team played great all season,, Chloe Abbushi, Lucy Martiken,Anna Jay, Ella Crock, Gigi Yore, and Zianah Griffin. Congratulation to their dedicated coach, Gary Ross for a fantastic 11-1 season. Go Wildcats!

The Novato Our Lady of Loretto Girls 5th Grade basketball team won the Marin County CYO Championship on March 16th. The team was led by super-sonic point guard Laura Figone, high season scorer Maddy Duffy, ultra rebounder Brissa Magana, intense hustler Emelia Oblites, tenacious post player Ava Olson, agile guard Addie Priest, and defensive specialist Isabel Quinn. The Novato OLL girls beat two number one ranked teams to take the title. They beat St. Rita’s from Fairfax on Saturday, March 15th to take the East Division title with a score of 26 to 17. On Sunday, March 16th the OLL girls beat Mt. Carmel from Mill Valley to win the Girls 5B CYO Championship with a score of 14 to 12. In true “March Madness” fashion, the OLL team was behind the entire game and tied the score with just one minute left. The Championship game was won in the last 30-seconds by OLL with a driving shot from Brissa Magana. Coached by Darcy Quinn and Theresa Figone, throughout the year the team overcame numerous injuries, sicknesses, and girls not being able to play. Coach Quinn stated “Despite we only had 7 players on our team and sometimes only played with 5, the girls never stopped believing in themselves and working as a team together. In each game this year, a different player stepped up her abilities to help win the game for the team. I am very proud of the girls growth and learning, the way they played with good sportsmanship, and won with with class”.

Hoops 4 Life
We had a full gym and the boys were awesome! The Maulers boys coached over a 100 youth from the Canal community. It was great! We had a lot of families show up. The clothing drive was a hit as always, plenty of folks left with clothes and shoes with smiles on their faces!
* Please note we had no winner to our Slam Dunk contest!
We had no one who could Dunk unfortunately! To be continued at the next Hoops 4 Life…

Cal-Star gymnasts Ava Scafani, age 11 and Maytal Yachdav, age 17 qualified at the Norcal State Championships to the level 8 Regional Championships to be held April 11-13th at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, Ca.

Level 8 State Championships was held March 21-23rd in Folsom, Ca.

Ava Scafani, placed 3rd on Bars with a score of 9.3 and 6th on Vault scoring a 8.95. In the All-Around (combining all 4 gymnastics events) placing 8th in her age group.

Maytal Yachdav, placed 3rd on Vault with a 9.25 and 6th on Floor scoring a 9.175. All-Around placed 7th in her age group.

Twelve Marin Pirate Swimmers recorded 29 best times at the NCSA Junior National Championships (18 & under) March 18-22 in Orlando Florida. The girl’s team recorded a 6th place finish in the team scoring (out of over 300 teams) with 306 pts., the highest finish ever for the Pirates at Juniors.

The team was led by Riley Scott who took first in the 200 yard breast (2:11.18), 2nd in the 100 breast (1:00.84), 10th in the 200 IM (2:01.26) and 11th in the 50 breast (29.11).

Halle Morris took 7th in the 200 breast (2:16.15), 11th in the 100 breast (1:02.83) and 14th in the 50 breast (:29.34).

The Marin Rage is a independent, AAU sixth grade girls basketball team who qualified and competed in the first annual norcal middle school basketball state championship in Sacramento, CA. On the 22 and the 23 of March and finished seventh in the state finals. The coach is Reid Yanabu. The players are Britney Garcia, Ashley Yanabu, Tiyona Perini-Ford, Katie Pile, Sarah Snyder, Angie Zuber, Ashalia Dawkins, Kavi Dolasia, and Emma Ingledew who wasn’t there but in spirit.

8 players from Sleepy Hollow Aquatics club (SHAQ) will be participating in the USA Water Polo Olympic Developmental Program (ODP) National Championships in Riverside the weekend of Feb 28 thru March 1 as part of the Northern California Pacific Zone team. Participating in the tournament will be Danny Roland, Spencer Hanson, Wyatt Hanson, Quinn Woodhead, Emerson Sullivan, Mikey Dakis, Connor Moynihan and Alexander Lansill. These players were chosen from over 120 players from the Pacific Zone.
Based on performance at the National Championship these athletes could be selected to attend National Team Selection Camps, where additional evaluation and training will lead to the selection of America’s cadet teams, most of which will represent the US in some form of international competition.